Send me email updates about messages I've received on the site and the latest news from The CafeMom Team.
By signing up, you certify that you are female and accept the Terms of Service and have read the
Privacy Policy.

Rules for staying home sick???

What are your rules for when your kids stay home sick? Do you let them stay home just for saying they don't feel good or do they need to fit a certain criteria? When they are home are they limited from certain activities?

My daughter looked out of sorts yesterday.......was pretty well behaved and acting somewhat "normal" but she wasn't eating much and relaxed alot....so I took her temp.....it was 100.4, not extremely high, but higher than normal.......I put her to bed that night and said we would talk about school in the morning. So this morning she was pretty "normal" as far as personality goes and I took her temp to check......she was 100.1. So she asked if she could stay home. I told her that I would like for her to go to school and try...here is my reasoning.......last month she had a cold for a week.....during the whole cold she ran a low grade temp.....I even had her at the DRs....it was not a FLU because the temp was too low....it was a cold....and even his opinion was that there is no reason to keep her home for a cold. I know she feels bad, but in reality if we stayed home for every cold we got, we would miss probably a months worth of work/school. If her temp was higher or if she was throwing up or had stomach issues, no doubt I would keep her home.....but she has the sniffles with a low grade temp. My rule is that is she did stay home that there would be no playing, she would have to go to bed. So here it is, almost the end of the school day and no call from the school. So my guess is she is toughing it out. I know it sounds mean, but if Ilet her stay home, I guarantee it would run all week with I don't feel well, can I stay home? I told her if she couldn't do it, I would get her but she would have to go to bed. So what do you do?

**UPDATE: So my daughter made it through no problem on Monday. She attended dance class but sat and watched instead of participating, and although her cold sympyoms are now in full force she has went to school yesterday and today with no problems. This year she has said quite a few mornings that she doesn't want to go to school, so if she has the slightest of colds she will over play them to stay home. There were two incidents this year where I either picked her up or kept her home and totally felt it was a waste because she was acting very normal after the fact....so I have had to get strict with my guidelines as why you stay home and what you do when you do stay home. I can't even say I will let her watch TV because even fully healthy she would love to do that anyways. I have to tell her she needs to sleep in bed all day to find out if she really feels bad enough.

With my youngest I'd send him to school, My oldest would have had to take to the doctor, even with just a 100.4 temp because he has a medical condition and the protocol is any temp of 100.4, he needs to be checked out by a doctor (even if it is 2am, I need to take him in right away)

My kids have to be running a fever, puking, or have the runs to stay home. So they pretty much have to be dying to stay home. Both of my youngest have missed 4 days this year. Thankfully they don't get sick often, and when they do they a legitimately sick, so they pretty much just sleep the entire day. But if they happened to feel better during school hours, they are allowed to watch TV, no computer, no phone. No rambunctious behavior. Just chilling and watching TV.

Vomitting and a fever above 101 or diarrhea but we havent done that yet. This year she was kept home twice due to vomitting the night before. Last year she had an upper respiratory infection which made her real lethargic and she coughed alot. The doctor said we could keep her home for that week so she could build her energy up.

When she is home sick, she can lay in bed or lay on sofa to watch PBS. No computer games.

It's pretty easy to tell if my kids are sick, sick or faking/little sick. But if they stay home then they are not aloud to do outside activities, they are limited on what they can eat (no sugars or lots of snacks etc) and no running/jumping around the house. If your well enough to do that your well enough to go to school. But that has only happened once, usually when they are sick enough to stay home they don't wanna eat and just wanna lay in bed or watch tv.

Exception sorry. My DD had head lice four times this year. Not a it didn't get treated, but four seperate times. The rules are different for that. She has to sit long enough for me to nit pick her hair, treat it, nit pick again. But then she is free to play. Still no friends or activities though for obvious reasons

Send me email updates about messages I've received on the site and the latest news from The CafeMom Team.
By signing up, you certify that you are female and accept the Terms of Service and have read the
Privacy Policy.